1. Field of the Disclosure
The presently disclosed embodiments are directed to providing an auto-collation system, and more particularly, to a collation system having dual positioning bins, and even more particularly to a collation system having a two-way pusher that quickly and accurately removes media from the bins and into single or dual banders.
2. Description of Related Art
Retail stores often utilize signage to convey information regarding products offered for sale, for example, product cost, unit cost, sale pricing, etc. Such signage must be updated and/or replaced on a periodic basis. For example, regular product pricing may change, or during a sale, a discounted price may be necessary. Changes to signage may be required for hundreds or even thousands of products and these changes may be required daily, weekly or another periodic term. In some states, it is critical that the signage be updated in a timely fashion as the retail store may be obligated to honor the price displayed adjacent the product. In other words, if the store fails to remove signage that displays a discounted cost, the store must charge that cost if a customer relies upon that price when making a purchase selection. In view of the foregoing, it should be apparent that proper timing and placement of signage is a critical responsibility of a retail store.
Although some retail chain stores share common store layouts, also known as a store planogram, most retail locations, even within a chain store, have unique store planograms. The changeover of signage can incur significant time which in turn incurs significant cost. A common practice is to print sheets of signage and an employee or group of employees are tasked with signage changeover. These methods include various deficiencies, for example, sheets printed out of order or not matched to the store planogram, sheets that require further separation of individual signage labels, etc.
In view of the foregoing issues, some stores require signage to be in a per store planogram order and to be pre-separated, both to facilitate the efficient changeover of signage. It has been found that to achieve this arrangement of signage, signage labels or cards are imposed so that each set of labels is in sequential order within a sheet and then across the collection of sheets. For example, cards may be delivered to various stores in stacks of ninety-six cards each stack thereby requiring three sheets, each sheet containing thirty-two labels, to be collated sequentially to produce a complete stack. Cards of this type may be cut using a high speed cutting system. The cards may be fed from a slitter system into bins, however it has been found that these systems are ineffective as the cards are not guided and adjacent cards interfere with each other as they bounce and settle into the bins. Such systems cause a high percentage of media jams and thus result is downtime and increased costs.
The heretofore mentioned problems were addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,463,946 which is incorporated herein by reference to the extent needed to practice the present disclosure and provides a system for collating a plurality of media including a first bin, a second bin arranged adjacent to the first bin, a collated stack receiver arranged proximate the second bin opposite the first bin, first, second and third guides, where the first and second guides are positioned on opposing sides of the first bin, and the second and third guides are positioned on opposing sides of the second bin, and a pusher. When the first, second and third guides are positioned in non-retracted locations, a first set of the plurality of media is deposited in the first bin and a second set of the plurality of media is deposited in the second bin, and when the first, second and third guides are positioned in retracted locations, the pusher moves the first set to the second bin vertically above the second set to form a first combined set and then moves the first combined set to a collated stack receiver.
This system employs a set of static angled collation bins and a one-direction pusher that directs media into a single bander. After each push the collation system resets by dynamically dropping the pusher and rewinding the pusher under the bins and then actuating the pusher into an up position to home to prepare for the next collation. Because the system must reset to the home position after each push, significant time is added to the overall process and system timing is negatively affected. However, this drop and reset to height causes additional vibration and settling issues and requires accounting for settling time.
The present disclosure addresses all of these problems in a practical and cost effective system and method.